Lakers News: Team Scouts In Attendance For Duke/FSU Game?
By Alex Torres
It’s safe to say that the Lakers will not be doing much winning this season, so the focus now shifts to the NBA Draft. As you all already know, because it’s being talked about non-stop this season, the Lakers only keep their draft pick if they land a top-5 selection.
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A top-five pick could help turn things around for the Lakers, especially with some very good prospects in this year’s draft. Last year’s draft was supposed to be one of the best ever, but now we know that’s probably not the case. The 2015 class could be special and the Lakers must get it right if they want to get back to chasing NBA titles.
The Lakers are going to have to do their homework and a Duke game is a good place to get some research done. The Duke Men’s Basketball Office sent out this tweet earlier today, looks like the Lakers won’t be alone:
Scouts from Lakers, Grizz, Celts, Bulls, Mavs, Jazz, Hornets, Wolves, Knicks, Hawks scheduled to be here along w/ FSU's top crowd of year
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) February 9, 2015
Duke has three very promising prospects this season and all of them are freshman. The obvious one is Jahlil Okafor, this young man from Chicago is 6-foot-11 and weighs 270 pounds. He is believed to be the consensus number one pick in this year’s draft and after watching him play, you can easily understand why that is. He is averaging 18.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. It’s hard to find big men in the NBA and he could blossom into one of the NBA’s best.
Point guard Tyus Jones and forward Justice Winslow could also be potentially lottery picks and depending on where the Lakers land, they could be an option in this year’s draft. Jones is averaging 11.1 points and 5.5 assist per game, while Winslow contributes 11.4 points and 5.3 boards per contest. The Lakers need a lot of improvement, so this will be a great opportunity to scout some of the best players in the country.
Maybe one of them will be wearing purple and gold next season.